22 June 2023 , 08:45
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Cowardly ministers have been slammed after it was revealed no one will represent the Government at tonight's Question Time special on Brexit.
The flagship BBC show will have an audience comprising exclusively of Leave voters, the night before the seventh anniversary of the EU referendum.
It comes after a major new poll revealed just one in five people who voted for Brexit think it's going well.
Alastair Campbell, who will be part of tonight's panel, said it is "quite something" that ministers will be absent, but Tory insiders are understood to have been worried about a "stitch-up".
The failure to put up a Government representative sparked a wave of outrage, with ministers branded "the lowest bunch of gaslighting politicians in history".
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Mr Campbell posted on Twitter: "So the government won’t have a representative on BBC Question Time tonight.
The Government is accused of cowardice after it was claimed no minister will appear on Question Time (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)"Quite something that seven years on from their flagship 'achievement' they can’t face an audience made up entirely of people who voted for it.
"Anyone would think they were frit as Maggie used to say."
And Carol Vorderman wrote: "This wk many Tory cowardly MPs abstained from the vote about Johnson & now they can't even face the people they lied to!!
"The lowest bunch of gaslighting politicians in history."
The show, hosted by Fiona Bruce, will be filmed in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, where nearly three quarters of voters chose to leave the EU.
The panel will consist of Tory backbencher John Redwood, businessman Ben Habib, Mr Campbell, Labour's Jenny Chapman and Prof Anand Menon.
Alastair Campbell claimed the Government has chickened out (PA)It is understood the Tories planned to put forward Anthony Mangnall, a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Treasury after deciding not to send a senior minister.
Friday is the anniversary of the 2016 vote to quit the EU, when voters backed quitting the bloc by 52% to 48%.
But a major study by pollsters Public First for the UK in a Changing Europe think tank revealed how those who backed withdrawal feel about how it has been handled.
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Carol Voderman accused the Government of 'gaslighting' votersOnly 18% of Leavers feel Brexit has gone “well” or “very well”, with 30% saying it has “neither turned out well or badly” and 26% warning it is “too soon to say”.
UK in a Changing Europe director Anand Menon said: “Many Leave voters believe Brexit has not been a success because politicians have let them down. The danger is that this will lead to an erosion of faith in politics and politicians.”
A second referendum is backed by less than half the public, with 44% supporting another poll and 33% against. Two-thirds of Leavers are opposed to a rerun.
Among all voters, 48% would go back into the EU, while 32% would stay out. Among Brexiteers who think it is going badly, 40% would vote to rejoin the bloc while 30% want to stay outside.